Nancy Pelosi Predicts 'Democrats Will Stick With The President' On Fiscal Cliff Deal. REALLY?

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is convinced her fellow Democrats will get behind the White House's latest "fiscal cliff" deal that cuts Social Security benefits and increases taxes on the middle class. Others in the party, however, hedged on the likelihood of that provision passing with a majority of Democratic votes. President Barack Obama's latest offer in the fiscal cliff negotiations would allow the payroll tax holiday to expire, meaning middle-class workers will see smaller paychecks in 2013. It also proposes a Social Security reform known as "chained CPI" that would reduce the benefits senior citizens receive through Social Security.



Additionally, Obama's latest offer would permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes of less than $400,000. Previously, the president had insisted that taxes increase on families with income above $250,000. Despite these changes, Pelosi said she could convince her caucus to get behind such a plan, if need be "Do you think you could sell it to your caucus?" MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell asked Pelosi in an interview on Tuesday. "I do," replied Pelosi, adding, "Yes, the Democrats will stick with the president -- and maybe not every single one of them."



Pelosi certainly knows the temperature of her caucus better than any other lawmaker. And if she predicts that chained CPI could make it through, the likelihood is that she knows she can rally the votes to get it through. But other top officials were holding off on judgment for the time being.



- In a comment to HuffPost, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said, "We had an election, and the voters sent a message to Congress to focus on jobs and fairness -- not cutting benefits for people who have worked all their lives and are now making ends meet on fixed incomes. The formula we use to adjust cost-of-living changes for seniors needs to reflect the real costs they face, not the budgetary fantasies of Washington." Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called chained CPI "a benefit cut -– pure and simple" in a statement on Tuesday. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said it was "a Beltway fig leaf that I will never support." Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said "at this stage is the wrong way to go." Progressive advocacy groups such as CREDO, MoveOn, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Social Security Works all responded to the president's latest offer saying Social Security cuts were unacceptable. Durbin, however, also told HuffPost a few weeks ago that he would be willing to consider chained CPI "in a much broader context, not by itself."






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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/nancy-pelosi-fiscal-cliff_n_2324042.html